018 – A Yellowish Liquid With A Repulsive Taste

I followed.

My body moved before I could even think.

“Right now…”

“Do everything you can…!”

Urgent voices spilled from within the medical wing.

“Mihan! Stay awake! Don’t fall asleep now…!”

These were things I shouldn’t be hearing.

“…”

I paced back and forth, anxiously waiting outside the medical wing door. After what felt like twenty minutes…

*Click…*

I saw Professor Layton emerge.

“…Ella? What are you doing here?”

“I saw a…familiar face…”

“I see. Actually, this is perfect. I wanted to ask you something.”

“Yes?…”

The Professor stepped out of the medical wing…

“Ella, tell me what Mihan did yesterday.”

He was asking about Mihan’s activities at our mansion the day before.

“Well…”

…I told him everything truthfully.

How, after lunch, I had asked him to identify any doppelgangers within the mansion.

How he had vomited blood while trying to identify the doppelgangers…

How he had taken a nap after finding all the doppelgangers within the mansion…

“How many people did he use his ability on?”

“Around…250…”

“…Did he read the letter I sent?”

“That… I read it when he was almost done identifying the doppelgangers…”

“Ah…”

After explaining everything that happened at the mansion…

“Um, …Professor…”

“Speak.”

“…Is Mihan-nim going to be alright?”

“Hmm…”

“Why, all of a sudden… did it happen like that…”

I found myself asking.

What had befallen him…

“It’s not to lay blame on you, but it seems yesterday’s events gave Meehan quite a shock to his system.”

“..!!”

“I went to Meehan’s dormitory, seeking cooperation in the Academy Doppelganger hunt, and…”

“…”

“He was collapsed, vomiting blood, it seems.”

“…”

“In the midst of fainting, he struck the sink, shattering his nose.”

Each word from Professor Layton pierced my heart.

Because it was an event brought on by me.

If I hadn’t worked him so relentlessly, it wouldn’t have happened…

“Well, after that, as you likely saw firsthand, he’s being treated in the medical bay.”

I delivered the greatest gift I could muster through the Head Butler’s hands.

A badge etched with the Eloise Family crest.

Without any room for argument, that badge… was proof to demand unconditional cooperation from any noble under the Eloise Family’s banner.

My father, as a Margrave guarding the borderlands, held sway over a vast number of affiliated nobles, a number that even most Dukes would treat with deference.

And so… by granting that badge to Meehan-nim, I was able to alleviate a portion of the guilt that had been consuming me…

“Looking at his emaciated frame, I worry that recovery might be a slow process…”

“…”

I don’t know.

What more can I possibly give now?

I don’t know.

What can I place in his hands…

“……”

to lessen this guilt that has taken root so deeply within my heart…

*

“…”

I regret not asking them to at least clothe me.

I was lying naked on a bed inside the medical bay…

I tightly gripped the blanket, earnestly trying to cover my body.

‘Ouch… how prickly…’

Fortunately, the injury to my nose was quickly healing.

An added bonus was experiencing each fragment of my nasal bone finding its way back into place.

‘…I’m hungry.’

Such a witless body…

To be hungry, even in this situation.

“Excuse me…”

To the priestess attending to me with holy magic, I was about to politely inquire if I could borrow some clothes and go grab some breakfast, when…

*Scriiiitch…*

I could see the familiar face of a woman entering the infirmary.

“Oh? Ms. Ella.”

I felt a momentary surge of pleasure at her appearance, before the thought struck me – was she also unwell?

“Are you feeling ill? Ah… surely.”

The Head Butler mentioned last night that the young lady wasn’t feeling well…

Could it be that she wasn’t just embarrassed, but genuinely sick?

“Are you alright?..”

I felt a pang of guilt for having suspected her, and asked if she was okay, putting my regret into the question…

Step by step…

She walked towards me without hesitation, stopping beside the bed.

At the same moment, I felt her subtly pull down the blanket, as if to check my injuries.

*’Oh, oh, that won’t do.’*

“It’s just my face that’s hurt…!”

“…I heard.”

I don’t know what she heard, but I wish she’d leave the blanket alone.

“Th-that, just a moment…!”

Ugh, this is really not good..!

*’What strength…!’*

My frail body was no match for the woman’s power.

Soon, the blanket was lowered until it rested right above my navel, at Ella’s hand.

Gripping tightly…

Holding onto the blanket with all the desperate importance of the world, I was fixing it so that it couldn’t go down any further, Ella’s eyes trembled uncontrollably as she looked at my gaunt frame.

“Th… this…”

“…Don’t say you’re alright…”

*’No, just let go of the blanket…!’*

“Why do you always… lie and say you’re alright? Why always…”

The hand gripping the blanket trembled violently.

I’m genuinely scared.

I fainted after showering last night, and there’s nothing covering my lower body..!

“I don’t know what the relationship is between the two of you, but the patient’s rest is the priority now.”

At that instant.

The words of the healing priest saving me.

“Ah… I’m sorry…”

Thankfully, Ms. Ella heeded the priest’s words and immediately stepped away.

“…”

After taking a moment to put some distance between herself and the bed, and a while to consider something, she…

*Whoosh…*

Quickly and immediately, she left the infirmary.

“She looked like she was in such a rush.”

It must have been my imagination, the way her retreating figure seemed so hurried.

…

“Apologies for the delay, Meehan.”

“It’s quite alright, Professor!”

“Here it is.”

Finally, the Professor had brought my clothes, and I hastily scrambled out of bed to dress.

“I was delayed fetching this on the way.”

Having quickly finished dressing, Professor Layton explained his lateness, holding up something in his hand.

“What is that?”

You know how it is?

Just looking at a wine bottle, you get the feeling, “Wow… that must be incredibly expensive.”

That was exactly the situation with the bottle I was now seeing.

“An elixir.”

“An elixir?”

“Indeed.”

“Are you feeling unwell lately?”

I had noticed the dark circles under the Professor’s eyes seemed a little more pronounced recently.

So, he’s looking after his health—

“It’s for you.”

“Pardon?”

“Meehan, this elixir is for you to drink.”

“Uh…”

*Pop-*

The stopper on the elixir bottle came loose with a clear sound.

‘I didn’t say I would drink it…!’

A forceful sale, then…

Professor Layton was forcing an elixir upon me!

“I… I don’t have any money.”

Thus, I uttered the potential victim’s last words before being coerced…

“Really… Your honesty, even at moments like this, is your problem. Ordinarily, people’s eyes would be lighting up at the sight of an elixir.”

“Excuse me?…”

*Pour-*

“I’m giving this to you as an apology. Just drink it. You see, I… carelessly let slip some information about you to the faculty… My tongue runs away with me, it does…”

‘Mine too, hence why I’m lying here! But please, stop pouring so much…!’

As if my lack of funds wasn’t an issue.

He immediately poured the elixir into the water glass I had been using.

“Drink it all down.”

“Uh…”

“Its efficacy diminishes the moment it’s unsealed, so you must drink it quickly.”

“What Professor is drinking is…”

“Oh dear, guess I’ll have to leave this here.”

Having said that, he really did try to leave the elixir behind and head out.

“I’ll drink it… Thank you, Professor.”

Before the professor, who was wearing a pleased smile, I promptly downed the yellowish liquid.

“Gggk…”

Glug glug…

“There’s still another glass left.”

“Another…glass?”

Some elixir it is, being yellow-tinged, seeing as how it tastes like the world’s worst thing.

This isn’t elixir, it’s piss…

“Drink it up quickly. There’s no need to feel guilty.”

‘It’s not that I’m feeling guilty, it’s just…’

“I feel really sorry for you… and there’s also another favor I need to ask… consider this the compensation.”

‘If you feel sorry… don’t ask for that fa… Ah, you already poured it all…’

I really didn’t want to drink it, but.

When he looks at me with those bright, eager eyes, like a child wanting to be praised…

How could I betray those expectations?

Gulp… Gulp…

‘Gghheeeee!’

Having no choice, I drank another cup of the revolting liquid.

To forget this godforsaken taste, I promptly filled my water glass with fresh water and drank it down…

‘Ughhh!’

Today’s lesson:

Always wash your cups after using them…

Wash them thoroughly…

Because the aroma of what you drank before lingers…

“Gggk…”

“Is the effect already showing?”

“I’m just… in pain…”

“Oh dear, I told you not to feel so guilty…”

While I was savoring the lingering revolting taste, in a manner of speaking…

“…Hmm?”

“It seems the effect is beginning to manifest.”

I could feel a foreign energy circulating within my body.

“…Professor, would you mind telling me… what kind of elixir I just drank?”

“As you know, the amount of aether we humans can possess is fixed from birth.”

“…Right?”

It was information I already knew.

At the Arcane Campus, strength and intelligence can be steadily increased with enough time and effort.

The Aether, once it reached a certain threshold, could grow no more.

The total amount of Aether each person could possess was different. I, too, would reroll again and again until a protagonist with a high Aether capacity appeared.

But…

“This, they say, is a panacea that increases that limit.”

“Pardon?”

A panacea that allows one to break through the limit you’re born with?

This is completely… no, wait a minute.

“…”

Since coming to this world, I hadn’t once used Aether.

In the game, I used Aether to strengthen my body, or enhance the weapons I used…

But in this place, where the game has become reality, I haven’t used Aether even once.

And now… it increases that limit?

“Furthermore, it also has the effect of replenishing innate vitality. Someone with a limited lifespan, after drinking it, would survive for several more years…”

The professor’s words entered my ears, but didn’t reach my head.

Because…

‘Such a precious thing…’

Such a precious thing…

I, who doesn’t even know how to use Aether, had already consumed it.

‘I poured it straight down the drain…’

Thinking as optimistically as possible, if the total amount of Aether increases…

It would be beneficial for kidnapping, spying, and sleep magic, I decided.

‘Kidnapping will allow me to abduct five people at once.’

‘Spying will now allow me to see through the target’s clothes, too.’

‘Sleep magic will allow me to manipulate the other person’s dreams!’

Here I was, expecting to become a succubus just from drinking one panacea.

Ah, since I’m a man, an incubus.

‘Now that it’s come to this, I might as well get a TS transformation!’

Human greed is endless.